Rejuvenated Griffons Extend Winning Streak

18 juillet 2018 00:56

Photo : Alex Perez

The Club de soccer Mont-Royal Griffons have turned a corner in their season. After a string of poor results and a habit of conceding late goals, CS MRO’s latest win has the team feeling confident mid way through the campaign.

Since the club’s shock draw to nine-player Longueuil last month, the Griffons have shown a more rejuvenated side. Their recent 4-1 win over Dynamo de Québec on Sunday extended their winning run to four games.

“I think the feeling of the team is good, we took this game as a test, and we passed. We gotta perform next week,” said Griffons forward Ritch-Andy Jean-Pierre, who got a goal and an assist versus Dynamo. “[Brutus] talked to us and now the focus is on the big prize. So we gotta focus, and that’s it.”

Midway through the Première Ligue de soccer du Québec season, head coach Luc Brutus credits the club’s recent success to players returning from injury as well as the team’s improved defensive displays.

Brutus added that the Griffons have “found the core of the team and now it’s just to make sure we try to improve on the speed of play [and] be more efficient on everything that we do, whether it’s offensively or defensively.”

After enduring a slow start to the PLSQ season, captain Sean Rosa said the Griffons feel like they’ve hit their stride after their win over Dynamo and are excited to see what the rest of the season brings.

“We’ve had a couple of games where we went through some situational things [like conceding] in the last minute,” said Rosa. “We feel like the strength of this team has been tested and [against Dynamo] we were just able to go out there and play.”

Since signing for the Griffons from France, Julien Obriot has cemented his spot as one of Luc Brutus’ first choice defenders. Photo courtesy Audrey Magny.

The Griffons continue to remain in second place behind Association de soccer de Blainville. But CS MRO are breathing down Blainville’s necks, sitting just two points behind the defending PLSQ champions; the two sides are set to meet next Saturday in a battle for first place.

The last time both teams met, Blainville came away with the win after a 93rd minute goal from the league’s leading scorer, Pierre-Rudolph Mayard.

“We’re ready for whatever is gonna happen next week and we’re just excited to have the opportunity to play for a championship or a title race for the end of the season,” said Rosa.

While next week’s game will dictate who takes first place, Brutus stressed that there is still a ways to go for both sides from now until the end of the season, insisting that the PLSQ race is “gonna go up until the end.”

“Whether it’s us or whether it’s [Blainville] we can lose points everywhere, so we have to be focused to the remainder of the season,” said Brutus.

The Griffons will pay visit to AS Blainville as the two sides fight for first place in the league, next Saturday night at Parc Blainville.